So we've got a New Guy...

... and he's not bad. Just hasn't had any customer-facing work before. He seems to be taking to it well. Tonight we had a guest ask for towels for the pool(indoor), and he leaves to go get them. I was in the back getting ready to come home. I stepped out and the guest told me why he was out.

My immediate response: "Oh, I didn't realize the shelf in the pool area was out of towels, I'm sorry!"

Guest: "Oh! I didn't even check!"

New Guy gets back and was asking me where the towels were, which by this point, the guest and I have already found the towels in the pool area.

I got the chance to explain to him that a lot of times the job is to inform the guest of things they didn't bother to check for or ask for in advance in the most pleasant way possible.

I specifically told him: "It is an exercise in diplomacy. For example, when a guest calls me from their room asking for the WiFi access code, the poorest choice of words would be along the lines of 'Its in the cardsleeve I gave you, dumbass.' or I could rephrase it and ask as if I were questioning them if I made a mistake by saying 'Oh? Did I not write it in the cardsleeve I gave you at checkin?' When you phrase it this way, it pushes them to think about what they're actually saying or requesting."

He seemed to pick up on this, so I have hope for him. It also helps that we're super slow and he's on nights right now, so we have time to get him up to speed.

ill tell you now, you know we all have a different conversation when were talking to guests right? like 90% of the time im screaming a guests with my 7 years of exp going "if you would fucking listen, if you look on the thing i told you, it is a fucking autho that you where told about"

I was training a new night auditor and I was telling him this and he was like " But why would anybody not check that?" Dude. The secret to be the best in this job is to treat guest like children that don't want to be treated as children but are still children after all. Once you understand that your phrasing changes and you can, in a really subtle way, tell them YOU STOOPID FUCK I TOLD YOU THREE TIMES ALREADY.

"It is an exercise in diplomacy. For example, when a guest calls me from their room asking for the WiFi access code, the poorest choice of words would be along the lines of 'Its in the cardsleeve I gave you, dumbass.' or I could rephrase it and ask as if I were questioning them if I made a mistake by saying 'Oh? Did I not write it in the cardsleeve I gave you at checkin?' When you phrase it this way, it pushes them to think about what they're actually saying or requesting."

You phrased this perfectly. I'm working on my diplomacy skills a bit because some guests drive me up the fucking wall at work (extended stay motel) and I have to phrase things a way that doesn't make me sound like a complete bitch.

Working at a hotel as a FDA has taught me how to think before I speak. I'm not perfect at it yet, but I've learned how to not be condescending, even though I want to be.